Liberal Arts (2012)

“The purpose of fiction is to combat loneliness.”

            I have my BA in the Liberal Arts field of Art History. Sounds pointless right, like anything to do with history or the Liberal Arts in general? You would be right but I also have my MA in Museum Studies with a concentration in Museum Registration. My degrees are not completely useless it is just jobs are hard to come by just like any Liberal Arts subjects. Both of my degrees have been helpful with different types of jobs such as researching and cataloging an estate and doing some data entry for a while. I do sometimes wish I had chosen a subject such as computers/technology or communications that would at least guarantee me a job with any place yet I cannot picture myself being happy in anything but the Art History and museum fields. I love Art History, history, and museums with such a passion that I would not want to do anything else (well maybe being a professional vlogger or blogger would be the only other thing but those are not really going to happen any time soon). Usually people like me who have a Liberal Arts degree wind up working in places we do not necessarily want to work. At my last job one of the girls had a degree in Christian Studies and she was working data entry for a construction company. The movie Liberal Arts somewhat shows what it is like to have that degree, not doing what you love every day, somewhat finding your passion again, and finding younger people to teach your old ass wisdom to.

            Jesse Fischer (Josh Radnor) is thirty-five years old and works at an admissions office for a college in New York City. It is clear he is not happy with his job it is not ideally what he would have liked to have been doing at that point in his life. He likes to go to the local bookstore often to pick up some used books. His face is always in a book. Jesse receives an invitation from his old college professor Peter Holberg for his retirement party. Jesse had a good time at his liberal arts college and desperately misses that atmosphere and just the feeling of being in classes learning about his favorite subjects. Holberg was an English professor who had been with the college for thirty-five years.

            Holberg introduces Jesse to his friends and their twenty-two-year-old daughter Zibby (Elizabeth Olsen). Zibby is at the college studying theater. Jesse and Zibby walk around the campus together and find they have a lot in common. She tells him about a music appreciation class she had taken the year before and how much she now loves classical music. After that walk Jesse and Zibby write to each other about books to read and music to listen to.

            Even though they like each other and that there is a sixteen-year gap between them, Zibby and Jesse fall in love through their written letters. She asks him to come back for a visit and he does. He leaves when she asks him to sleep with her and she tells him it would be her first time. Jesse does not want to deal with that and he leaves. When he returns home he goes to the bookstore and starts talking to Ana, the woman behind the register. They talk about books and life experiences and eventually date. Jesse finally finds someone he loves that is age appropriate for him and makes realize he needs to live his life outside of books.

            Liberal Arts was not a terrible movie. I liked how part of the story was about this older guy who has a degree in Liberal Arts but is doing something he did not think he would be doing with his degree. I pray to God all the time that I will find a job in a museum where I can use my degrees that I have $124,000 worth of debt over (fucking private college I went to for Grad school). Josh Radnor and Elizabeth Olsen were great individually and together. I really like Olsen as an actress. So far the films I have seen her in she has been fantastic. I was very excited to see Elizabeth Reaser in a movie she had one of my favorite storylines on Grey’s Anatomy (speaking of GA, Kate Burton, AKA, Ellis Grey, was also in this!) and what I have seen of her in other movies and shows she has been very good. Liberal Arts is a movie I think that is worth watching at least once especially if you have that degree.

 

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

“You still living a trail of human wreckage, or have you retired?”

“Why? You looking for a date?”

            I have never been interested in aliens. The subject/topic bores me. I know the argument is that the universe is gigantic that we cannot possibly be the only ones living on a planet somewhere. I get it that argument it makes total sense to me. I want to believe it but I kind of cannot. I feel the same way about ghost and the paranormal I want to believe it I do think it is fascinating but I do not really believe in it. Needless to say when a topic deals with aliens my ADHD riddled brain loves to take a hold and zone me out. Despite the main plot dealing with aliens I did give Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull the benefit of the doubt because it is an Indiana Jones movie and he is one of my absolute favorite movie characters. While Kingdom of the Crystal Skull gets a lot of slack for several reasons, including the fact that it is about aliens, it is a fun modern Indiana Jones adventure.

            In the middle of the desert a group of Soviet soldiers manage to infiltrate a United States military storage site. The group is led by the no nonsense Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett). She has one of her men open the trunk and take the famous archaeologist Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) out. Spalko needs Indy to find a certain object that had been found and stored away in 1947 and Indy was one of the people brought to the site in 1947. Indy tries to tell Spalko that he has no idea what the object is that he and a whole bunch of scientists were taken to the site with the windows of the blacked out. He has an idea and asks for a compass and some gun powder. The magnetic hand on the compass and the gun powder immediately go in one direction. The Russians and the archaeologist rush towards the object. The object is an alien with a crystal skull. Indy sees this as an opportunity to get away especially since his friend Mac, who was also brought to the storage site, reveals he is a double agent and is now working for the Russians. Indy manages to get away. He thinks he made it into a nice quiet picturesque American neighborhood but when he discovers that all the people are mannequins he realizes he is on a test site for a nuclear bomb. He climbs into a lead lined refrigerator just in the nick of time.

            Indy is apprehended by FBI agents who believe that because of his associations with Mac is now also a Russian spy himself. He is vouched for by a General Ross who worked with Indy during WWII. The vouch is not enough for the FBI nor for the college Indy teaches at and he is put on indefinite leave. While on a train away from the college Indy is approached by a younger greaser called Mutt Williams (Shia LeBeouf). Mutt tells Indy that their mutual friend, the old Professor Harold Oxley (John Hurt), had gone down to Peru to search for a crystal skull and disappeared. Not long later his mother Mary Williams went looking for Oxley and was kidnapped. Indy looks around the dive they are sitting in realizes that there are men in black suits watching them. The men come over to their table, they are Russians looking to bring Indy with them. Of course Indy with Mutt’s help, gets away.

            Mutt had handed Indy a letter written by Oxley. Back at his place, Indy finds that Oxley wrote the letter in Mayan. Following the clues Indy and Mutt travel down to Peru. They find Oxley had had a mental breakdown and was thrown in a cell. He drew on the walls and Indy sees that the old man left clues to where the crystal skull can be found. In their first quest Indy and Mutt are captured by Mac and the Russians and brought to their camp site. Spalko is there and she tries to show Indy the power of the skull. She wants him to believe in it just like she does but he just is not buying it. During their stay at the camp they find Mutt’s mother is there. Indy is beyond shocked that Mutt’s mother is actually his old flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen). Once again Indy manages to get himself and Marion and Mutt and Oxley away from the Russians. They almost get ahead of the bad guys until Indy and Marion get stuck in some quicksand. Marion confesses that Mutt is actually his son, Henry Jones III.

            Just like the original three Indiana Jones movies, Indy and his crew work and fight to outsmart the bad guys to rescue history and the save the world.

            The cast was fantastic. I nearly died and crapped my pants seeing Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood back together. They are definitely one of my top movie OTPs I love them together so much. Marion is such a feisty character. In Raiders of the Lost Ark she kept Indy on his toes and she does so again in Crystal Skull. I do not know if it is just me but in Raiders you can tell that Marion is the only one he every really truly cared about. Willie in Temple of Doom was just someone to have fun with and Elsa in Last Crusade, well, Elsa was a bad guy but he definitely had a good time with her in one scene. There never seemed to be any chemistry or tension between Willie and Elsa like there was with Marion. Marion’s introduction scene in Crystal Skull is perfect you can still she is the same Marion Ravenwood she was when she was younger. I do not know what more I can say about Harrison Ford. Even in his late sixties at the time he was still kicking ass like a boss. He is and will forever be Indiana Jones. Ford mentioned that the character is not all about the age but his resourcefulness and imagination which has always been the case from the time of Raiders. Cate Blanchett was perfection as Irina Spalko. She is such a great actress it was great seeing her be this Russian bad guy who barely broke a sweat. I am not a fan of Shia LeBeouf but he was good as Mutt he was a good choice to play Indy and Marion’s son.

            Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is definitely not the best of the Indiana Jones movies but I find it enjoyable. The story is not the greatest with the aliens and the crystal skull and the Russians. Some people still complain that the CGI was too much that it made the movie cheesy and to that I say, can you all imagine what Raiders and Temple of Doom and Last Crusade would have looked like with the CGI today? Imagine how insane Toht’s melting face and the ghosts and the snakes in Raiders would have looked like? Chill out. I liked Crystal Skull and since it is a part of the Indiana Jones canon it is absolutely worth watching. 

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

"‘X’ never, ever marks the spot.”

            There are two things in this world from history that tend to fascinate just about everyone: The Holy Grail and the Nazis. The history of The Holy Grail goes all the way back to the earliest centuries. For thousands of years there has been a quest for the Cup of Christ that he used at the Last Supper. The Nazis were leaders of Hitler before and during World War II. They did whatever their Fuhrer wished and stopped at nothing to make his wishes come true. They caused utter destruction and millions of deaths. One story is legend and the other is true. When truth and legend combined to form a story is can be an incredibly interesting one if done right. The third installment of the original trilogy of Indiana Jones, The Last Crusade, combines the legend of The Holy Grail with the insanity of the Nazis to form one of the best movie stories and best movies ever made. 

            The Last Crusade begins by telling the story of how Indiana Jones became Indiana Jones. In 1912 when he was on a trip with the Boy Scouts he encountered men digging in caves in the desert. They were looking for a cross that belonged to Coronado. Indy knows that the cross belongs in a museum and intends to steal it to show his father. He almost gets away with it but slips up on some wood as he is climbing and knocks the wood to the ground alerting the diggers. Indy almost manages to out run them by jumping on a circus train and then running back to his house. His father cares for nothing but what is in front of him and tells Indy to count to calm himself down. Unfortunately, the sheriff arrives with the diggers and Indy is forced to give up the cross. The main digger tells Indy “Better luck next time” and places his brown fedora on young Indy’s head.

            Years later Indiana Jones is on a storm tossed ship once again looking to put Coronado’s cross into a museum. This time he is successful. Back in his classroom at the university where he is a professor, Indiana receives a package but does not have time to open it due to the swarm of students outside his door waiting to speak to him. He climbs out the window only to be stopped by two men in black suits and a car waiting to take him somewhere. That somewhere Indiana is taken to is the apartment of Walter Donovan. Donovan tells the archaeologist that his team he has assembled have found the location of a knight that is part of the lore of The Holy Grail and that his stone shield on his tomb has the site of The Holy Grail on it. Indiana is intrigued but asks why his father, who is an expert on the Grail is not the one Donovan contacted. Donovan informs Indy that his father was working for them but he disappeared in Venice.

            In Venice Indy and Marcus are to meet a Dr. Schneider. They think the doctor is a man and are pleasantly surprised to find it is a woman, Elsa Schneider. Elsa had been working with Indy’s father Henry (Sean Connery) before he disappeared. They were last together in an old library that had once been a church. The church is filled with symbols and images from the story of The Holy Grail. Indy finds that that X really does mark the spot and that underneath that X is a maze of catacombs where the one Grail knight’s burial place is located. Indy and Elsa find the knight’s casket and the other half of the shield. Indy quickly chalk rubs the shield just before the petroleum all around them is lit. Fortunately they are able to get away but are quickly chased by a group of men who are sworn to protect the site of the Grail. After an epic boat chase Indy manages to get it out of one of the men that his father is being held captive in a German castle.

            Indy and Elsa go to the castle and they split up. Indy finds Henry alone in room. The German are alerted to Indy being there and the head of the Nazis at the castle brings Elsa into the room as if she is a hostage. Henry tries to convince his son that Elsa is one of the Nazis. Indy refuses to listen and Elsa comes over to him and takes the Grail Book.

            Both Joneses manage to get away from the Germans. They go to Marcus and Indy’s old friend Sallah in Egypt. The Nazis also manage to make it to Egypt and they make the race to where the Grail is a very difficult challenge. When they make it to the location Henry is shot by the Nazis to make Indy go through the challenges that were set up as a test for those seeking the Grail. Henry had found clues to the challenges over many years throughout many sources. Indy successfully gets through the challenges and so does Elsa and Walter Donovan. One of the knights of the Grail is still in the room where hundreds of chalices are. He tells them to choose wisely. Donovan is not a historian he has no idea which one would be the cup of Christ. Elsa chooses for him and she purposely chooses the wrong one. Donovan quickly decomposes and turns to dust. Indy, of course, chooses the right one, the one that would be the cup of a carpenter. He brings the Grail filled with water back to his father. Henry drinks it and Indy pours water over his father’s womb and it quickly disappears. The old knight told them that the Grail cannot be carried out of the location no one can carry it over a certain point on the floor. Elsa is a dumb ass and walks over the point and the whole place caves in on them. Elsa falls to her demise after she tries to crab the cup. Indy almost does too but Henry tells him, “Indiana, let it go.”

            Indy, Henry, Sallah, and Marcus are all out of the location safe and sound. All throughout the movie Henry has been calling Indy “Junior”. Puzzled, Sallah asks what is with “Junior”. Henry explains that Indy’s real name is Henry Jones, Jr. and that “Indiana was the dog.” Indy goes by the dog’s name because he liked the dog.

            What makes Last Crusade so much fun, almost more than the story, is seeing Harrison Ford and Sean Connery together. They made the best father/son team. It is really awesome that Sean Connery played Indy’s father because Indiana Jones was based off of James Bond. It was perfect to have the original James Bond come and play Indy’s father. Connery and Ford had great chemistry and they were very funny together.

            Going off of the Bond theme, I feel the need to talk about Elsa as a kind of Bond Girl a little bit. In Temple of Doom, the female lead of Willie Scott was an awful mess. Willie was a mess because she was whinny and needy and annoying as hell and she followed who I consider to be one of the ultimate female movie characters Marion Ravenwood. Marion is THE HBIC she is perfection as a female character. Then George Lucas and the writers follow up Marion Ravenwood with Willie Scott who is one of the worst types of female characters in a movie (can you tell I really, really do not like Willie?). Elsa Schneider was in no way near Marion’s level of female character but she was a HUGE improvement over Willie. She was definitely more the type of a Bond Girl: she appeared to be on Indiana’s side and then she turned out to be duplicitous. Usually in the Bond movies there are two female characters, one of them is good and the one that Bond has a thing with and the other is seductive and bad. In Last Crusade there was no good Bond Girl-type just the bad kind and she worked out so well. I love the way Elsa played Indy and even Henry.

            Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is without a doubt one of the most beloved and admired movies of all time and the out of the Indiana Jones trilogy that everyone likes the best. The story of the Nazis going after The Holy Grail and Indy and Henry having to go on this adventure to find it is so great and so much fun. I remember watching Last Crusade at my grandma’s house on VHS all the time when I was little. I did not even realize until like a couple of years ago there were other Indiana Jones movies besides Last Crusade! (that was before I became a movie freak, forgive my ignorance). Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a movie that everyone enjoys and if you have not seen it shame on you, get your act together and go watch it right now! 

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

“You're gonna get killed chasing after your damn fortune and glory!”

“Maybe. But not today.”

            Archaeology is something that fascinates so many. It is incredible when watching a documentary about an archaeological excavation how these archaeologist gleam so much about the past, a culture, a person, a religion, a former way of life from the smallest of objects. Today archaeologists are extremely thorough in their collecting procedures and local politics. The field was not always like that though. Famously the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s entire Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art is considered to have been stolen. Using blackmail and illegal ways, Luigi Palma di Cesnola funded the excavation of Cypriot antiquities while he was appointed to the American consul in Cypress in the 1860s. Cesnola than brought his collection to the Met where he became the first Director and where the collection is still located to this day. Cypress could have used the movie character Indiana Jones on their side. (In fact most archaeologists in the 1930s were like Indiana Jones… well, they were like him in the sense they used the same practices as the character). The country could have used Indiana like he was used by an Indian village to get back their sacred rocks in the movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

            Temple of Doom takes place the year before Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1935. Professor Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is in China. He is in a nightclub to give the crime boss Lao Che an ancient Chinese artifact. Lao cheats the professor and almost kills him by poison. Indy of course manages to escape but he has a bit of hindrance with him in the form of the nightclub’s singer Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw). Indy and Willie, along with Indy’s kid sidekick Short Round. All three narrowly escape when their plane goes down and they jump off the plane on an inflatable raft.

            They wind up landing on a river and stopping on the shores of a small village in India. The village is desolate. All the children, they find, have been taken away from them and that there is a palace that had been silent for such a long time and now it is occupied once again. The stories of the palace are not good. Indy sees that the village’s sacred stones have been taken. He now feels it is his duty to help these unfortunate people find their children and their stones so their land can once again come back to life and the village can thrive again. Willie is not happy about this detour at all and complains the entire way to the palace.

             At the palace Indy questions the people running it about a cult known as the Thuggee that were supposed to have been banished one hundred years previously. Everyone connected to the palace of course denies any such knowledge of this cult and of course Indy eventually finds them under the palace. He also finds the children of the small village have been enslaved in mines and caves working until they can no longer work. Indiana Jones returns the stones to the village where there is now green growing and the children have returned as well.

            Besides Harrison Ford, I think the cast of Temple of Doom is really lacking. Ford as Indiana Jones he is brilliant. No one could have been Indy but him. I could not stand the character of Willie so in turn Kate Capshaw annoyed the piss out of me. Willie is quite possibly one of the most annoying characters ever. Every time she opens her mouth I want to cry. She was such a poor follow up to Marion Ravenwood who is one of the best written female characters in a movie. It is like the writers went backwards with portraying their female lead. Willie was a whining, complaining, screaming, pain in the ass, damsel in distress. (Well, I guess technically they did since Temple of Doom is supposed to be a prequel of sorts). Despite the character being annoying Capshaw’s acting, to me, was terrible. I do want to give a mention to Ric Young who plays Lao Che’s son because he played the notorious villain Suit and Glasses on the TV show Alias. He was the first villain to really come up on Alias besides the main bad guy and to any fan of the TV show he is iconic. It was cool to see Young in a role outside of Suit and Glasses. (There is also a big Grey’s Anatomy/Alias/Kate Capshaw connection. If you want to hear this insane rambling of mine leave a comment below).

            Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is the lackluster one out of the original trilogy. Every time I watch Temple of Doom I cannot believe that this was the follow up to Raiders of the Lost Ark. Raiders is one of the most perfect movies ever between the story, the direction, the acting, and so many other aspects and then George Lucas and Steven Spielberg followed that perfection up with a story that is just silly and with a female character that is beyond a joke. With all my bashing of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom it is not the worst movie I have ever seen and I will always watch it as it is part of the Indiana Jones trilogy (Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is another discussion I will not get into at this time). This is definitely the Indiana Jones movie to drag your heels to see. 

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

“He's my friend.”

“So was I.”

            There are SO many superhero movies out today. The market is flooded with them and it seems most of them have the same themes and endings. The most common theme seems to be certain superheroes do not like each other at first and then through some kind of coincidence or magic they respect each other and come to be on the same side. Not totally bashing that storyline but it is just seems overused. Captain America: Civil spins that overused plot around by having the superheroes of the Avengers be friend and then become enemies.

            The Avengers are in serious trouble. They caused an insane amount of damage in the small country of Sakoia trying to fight off Ultron and in this film they accidentally blow up a building where innocent people were working. The United Nations believe that the Avengers should be kept in check. They propose The Sakovia Accords which is a rule/guidebook for the Avengers to sign and agree to that would give them limited power and only fight where they are assigned.

            Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) believes that every one of them should sign. He feels terrible that a young man died and his mother gave him a photo of her son. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), on the other hand, does not want to sign he believes that they should be able to go wherever in the world they are needed to help people.

            Steve gets himself into some deep crap when he helps his friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) aka The Winter Soldier. The United Nations conference for The Sakovia Accords was bombed and in a surveillance photo Bucky is the one who set the bomb in a news van. Steve does not believe Bucky would do something like even if the photo clearly shows him setting the bomb. He believes his best friend is innocent because Bucky remembered who he was slightly in The Winter Soldier. Iron Man and a lot of others think Steve is insane for defending Bucky and they want to stop him before things get out of hand.

            Obviously, there is a big clash between Tony and Steve and an even bigger one involving the other Avengers and some newer superheroes such as Spider Man, Black Panther, and Ant Man. The regulars from the tales of various Avengers pick their sides and do battle with their leader friends.

            In the end Steve and Tony do not settle their differences and the once friends remain divided.

            I was dying with the battle between Captain America and Iron Man because Ant Man was in it. The scene where Ant Man/Adam Lang is introduced to Steve is quite possibly my favorite scene of the movie. It just makes me so happy to see Paul Rudd in this superhero universe. Black Panther is an awesome character. He had a very interesting story that I am not going to give too much away because it is a major plot of the story and he is getting his own movie soon. The whole battle between the Avengers was incredible it was funny and intense and action packed.

            As much as I liked Civil War I do have a few complaints. I do hate to compare Marvel to DC but I have to say that DC did an awesome job in Batman vs. Superman with giving backstory into/slash an explanation as to why Batman and Superman fight in the first place. There is no need to watch Superman: Man of Steel before this although it might help a little but a lot of information and backstory is given in the movie. With these Marvel movies if you have not seen one you are shit out of luck and may not have any idea what they are talking about. Like if you have never seen Age of Ultron you will have no clue who Vision and Scarlett Witch are, you will have no clue what Sakovia is and why it is significant, and you may have no idea who Sharon Carter is from The Winter Soldier (I watched The Winter Soldier and even I forgot who she was) and a whole bunch of other points of the story. My major complaint may be the love aspect between Sharon Carter and Steve Rogers. Sharon Carter for those of you who may not be able to guess was Agent Carter’s niece. Like, ok, I completely understand that Steve has to move on from Peggy Carter, she got to age and she had to move on but with her niece? Seriously writers?! Steve and Sharon kissed and it felt like such shit it was so forced. (Plus I have an issue with Sharon Carter. If we are to go by the story shown in the TV show Agent Carter, Peggy’s brother and only sibling died in World War II and he was not married so therefore no kids from him. If that is true how is Sharon’s last name Carter? Sure, she could have changed her last name because her aunt was fucking Queen of the Universe and kick ass in every way, but if not then how the hell is her last name Carter?)

            Captain America: Civil War was a great movie. It is one of my favorite Marvel movies along with Captain America: The First Avenger, Ant-Man, and Deadpool. I like how everyone started off as friends and colleagues and by the end they were divided by these two men over how they were supposed to protect the people of the world. I do have to say I do not understand why Captain America had such an issue with the accords and being monitored, it seems like something he would agree with. But at the same time I can see why he would not want to be monitored and would want to just go and save whoever needs saving because that is the basic idea of Captain America: he wants to be the good guy, he wants to help everyone he can without restrictions. Captain America: Civil War is definitely a movie to go see in theaters as soon as you can. The action is great, the story is intense and interesting, and it will leave you very satisfied.

PS. Just in case you guys could not tell I am 100% #TeamCap. I loved seeing him beat the crap out of Iron Man. 

Silent Sundays: Tess of the Storm Country (1922)

“Nearly two thousand years ago from a hill-top in Judea came the sublime command: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ But his philosophy of the Great Teacher is often preached where never practiced- and sometimes practiced where never preached.”

            A while back I reviewed the first silent version of Tess of the Storm Country from 1914 that also starred Mary Pickford. Sometimes with remakes I am curious to see the differences such as what was taken away from the original or what has been added to the original. With this 1922 version of Tess of the Storm Country I was interested to see what had been added and how Mary Pickford acted in this updated silent. Much was added and made better.

            For those of you who are reading this review I will once again write up a summary of the film.

            The story begins with Elias Graves who has built a mansion on a hilltop overlooking the water. Down by the shore is a squatters’ village. Elias can do nothing to kick them off the land due to squatters’ rights. His daughter Teola is seeing a young man named Dan Jordan who is studying to be a lawyer. Elias does not care for Dan too much so Teola tells Dan that he must come up with an idea to get rid of the squatters to be in her father’s favor. Dan comes up the idea to call in official wildlife gamers to remove the nets the squatters use to fish and make their living. Without the nets the squatters will have no way of making money and will have to move on.

            Living in the squatters’ village is Tess Skinner (Pickford) and her father. All the squatters are happy with their lives and live peacefully. Only one man named Ben makes trouble. He is hell bent on marrying Tess and will do whatever it takes to make that happen. One day Elias sends his son Frederick down to the squatters’ village to take care of things. Frederick does not mind the squatters he does not agree with his father’s views of them. But he does go down to the village and is almost immediately attacked by Tess. Frederick likes Tess besides being attacked. He tells her if she were to clean up she would be pretty. Frederick makes a return visit because he likes Tess.

            Dan goes down to the village with the gamers to take away the nets. Some of the villagers fight with the gamers and Dan. Tess sees what is happening and runs out to grab her father’s nets. She tries to hide them in the mattress but one of the pieces of the net comes out and Dan sees it. He tells one of the gamers but he says to way so they can catch Tess’s father in the act of using it.

            Sometime later the people of the village are starving without their main source of income. Tess’s father decides to take his net out to fish. For some reason he takes his shot gun with him. Dan and some of the gamers come to the water once they are informed that Skinner is going out to fish. Dan goes down to the water and is shot by Ben who just so happened to get Skinner’s gun. Elias is convinced that Skinner is the one that killed Dan and has him thrown in jail. Teola is beyond heartbroken and sick with worry now that Dan is dead because she is having his baby out of wedlock.

            Frederick loves Tess. He gives her reading lessons before he is to go away to college. He tells her that once he is done with college he wants to come back and marry her. Teola, meanwhile, is in a great state. She believed her father would be away on business for several months. When she learns that he is coming home early she is terrified of what he would do to her if he found out about her condition. Teola walks to the edge of the water to kill herself. She slips and falls in. Fortunately, Tess was there to save Teola and takes her back to her shack. The next morning Teola has her baby. She is still worried about her father finding out about the baby. Tess says she will take care of the baby and not tell anyone it is her’s. Everyday Teola comes back to visit her son. It is not long before the baby becomes very sick.

            Ben sees Tess walking down the road and goes to grab her to take her away. He is still determined to marry her and now since her dad has been sentenced for the murder of Dan he sees it as a perfect opportunity for her to marry him. Tess refuses and manages to get away from the huge brute but he throws a rock at her head and knocks her out. Before he had gone away Frederick gave Tess his dog to look out for her and the dog attacks Ben allowing Tess to truly get away and be free.

            One winter stormy night, Frederick comes back for winter break. The first thing he wants to do is see Tess. He races to her shack. He comes in to find Teola there with Tess. He hears the baby crying. Tess says that she found the baby is taking care of it. Teola yells at her brother to not question Tess anymore. Frederick thinks he figures out the baby is really Tess’s and he is heartbroken and does not want to speak to her anymore. Again Tess becomes very fortunate that Frederick is in her life. Ben comes around to the shack not long after Frederick found Tess with the baby. Ben is looking to take Tess away still and will do so through any means necessary. Frederick found out that Ben is really the killer after another man in the village confessed to the police that he was with Ben when he shot Dan Jordan. He came to tell Tess that her father is free and that Ben is really the killer. Ben and Frederick get into a huge brawl but Tess was there with a chair to Ben’s head to knock him out and tie him up for the police. 

            That Sunday Tess is informed by the squatters’ doctor that the baby is dying. Tess is concerned that the baby has not been baptized and if he is not he will not be able to meet God. She takes him to the church to try to have the priest baptize the baby. The Graves are at church in the front row. Elias is furious that Tess is there and says that Tess being there is a disrespect to the other women in the church. Since the priest will not baptize the baby Tess performs her own ceremony with some holy water. Moved by seeing the baby and what Tess has done for her Teola out loud tells Tess to give her the baby. The whole church is shocked and Elias sits down in shame and sadness. The poor baby dies. Elias seeing how distraught his daughter is and how he did not know goes over to her and hugs her. When Tess returns home her father is there waiting for her.

            Out of grief Teola dies. Elias wants to thank Tess for all he did for his daughter. He realizes how truly wrong he was of her and the squatters. He signs the land over the squatters. The story ends with Elias and Frederick being forgiven and Tess and Frederick kissing.

            This version of Tess of the Storm Country was very good. What was left out of the original was good such as there being a woman in the village who had a baby out of wedlock. There were a few scenes and some of the story that was made longer which was not. Sometimes I feel that when a remade film is longer the story tends to drag but the story did not drag with the added forty-five minutes. Mary Pickford’s performance greatly improved. Not like her performance was terrible in the first version but in this version she was not over the top dramatic or overacted she was perfect. If you are a classic film buff and like silent films definitely check out both versions of Tess of the Storm Country from 1914 and 1922. Both are currently available in full to watch on YouTube.